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Top 100 greatest writers of all time

The greatest writers of all time, ranked by everyone, one head-to-head pick at a time. Build your own Top 10 and see it next to the world's.

110 poets, novelists and playwrights, from Homer, Sophocles and Virgil to Stephen King, Haruki Murakami and J. K. Rowling. Every head-to-head pick moves the list; this is where the whole world lands.

  1. William Shakespeare United Kingdom · 1564–1616
  2. Homer Ancient Greece · 8th century BC
  3. Leo Tolstoy Russia · 1828–1910
  4. Fyodor Dostoyevsky Russia · 1821–1881
  5. Franz Kafka Czech Republic · 1883–1924
  6. Ernest Hemingway United States · 1899–1961
  7. Dante Alighieri Italy · 1265–1321
  8. Edgar Allan Poe United States · 1809–1849
  9. Victor Hugo France · 1802–1885
  10. Mark Twain United States · 1835–1910
  11. J. K. Rowling United Kingdom · 1965–
  12. J. R. R. Tolkien United Kingdom · 1892–1973
  13. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Germany · 1749–1832
  14. Oscar Wilde Ireland · 1854–1900
  15. Voltaire France · 1694–1778
  16. James Joyce Ireland · 1882–1941
  17. Charles Dickens United Kingdom · 1812–1870
  18. Niccolò Machiavelli Italy · 1469–1527
  19. George Orwell United Kingdom · 1903–1950
  20. Jane Austen United Kingdom · 1775–1817
  21. Li Bai China · 701–762
  22. Agatha Christie United Kingdom · 1890–1976
  23. Albert Camus France · 1913–1960
  24. Hans Christian Andersen Denmark · 1805–1875
  25. Alexander Pushkin Russia · 1799–1837
  26. Rabindranath Tagore India · 1861–1941
  27. Ovid Ancient Rome · 43 BC–17 AD
  28. Euripides Ancient Greece · 480–406 BC
  29. Anne Frank Germany · 1929–1945
  30. Émile Zola France · 1840–1902
  31. Marcel Proust France · 1871–1922
  32. Heinrich Heine Germany · 1797–1856
  33. Miguel de Cervantes Spain · 1547–1616
  34. Lord Byron United Kingdom · 1788–1824
  35. Virgil Ancient Rome · 70–19 BC
  36. Molière France · 1622–1673
  37. Rudyard Kipling United Kingdom · 1865–1936
  38. John Steinbeck United States · 1902–1968
  39. Matsuo Bashō Japan · 1644–1694
  40. William Blake United Kingdom · 1757–1827
  41. Jules Verne France · 1828–1905
  42. Virginia Woolf United Kingdom · 1882–1941
  43. Rumi Tajikistan · 1207–1273
  44. George R. R. Martin United States · 1948–
  45. Stephen King United States · 1947–
  46. Anton Chekhov Russia · 1860–1904
  47. Alexandre Dumas France · 1802–1870
  48. Jorge Luis Borges Argentina · 1899–1986
  49. H. P. Lovecraft United States · 1890–1937
  50. Arthur Conan Doyle United Kingdom · 1859–1930
  51. Helen Keller United States · 1880–1968
  52. Maxim Gorky Russia · 1868–1936
  53. Horace Ancient Rome · 64–7 BC
  54. H. G. Wells United Kingdom · 1866–1946
  55. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry France · 1900–1944
  56. Petrarch Italy · 1304–1374
  57. Stan Lee United States · 1922–2018
  58. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Russia · 1918–2008
  59. Thomas Mann Germany · 1875–1955
  60. Ian Fleming United Kingdom · 1908–1964
  61. T. S. Eliot United States · 1888–1965
  62. Bertolt Brecht Germany · 1898–1956
  63. Henrik Ibsen Norway · 1828–1906
  64. Sophocles Ancient Greece · 496–406 BC
  65. Hermann Hesse Germany · 1877–1962
  66. Lewis Carroll United Kingdom · 1832–1898
  67. Gabriel García Márquez Colombia · 1927–2014
  68. Isaac Asimov United States · 1920–1992
  69. Walt Whitman United States · 1819–1892
  70. Robert Louis Stevenson United Kingdom · 1850–1894
  71. Friedrich Schiller Germany · 1759–1805
  72. George Bernard Shaw Ireland · 1856–1950
  73. William Faulkner United States · 1897–1962
  74. Aldous Huxley United Kingdom · 1894–1963
  75. Honoré de Balzac France · 1799–1850
  76. Kalidasa Ancient India
  77. Roald Dahl United Kingdom · 1916–1990
  78. Federico García Lorca Spain · 1898–1936
  79. Vladimir Nabokov United States · 1899–1977
  80. Kahlil Gibran Lebanon · 1883–1931
  81. Dr. Seuss United States · 1904–1991
  82. Emily Dickinson United States · 1830–1886
  83. Haruki Murakami Japan · 1949–
  84. Geoffrey Chaucer United Kingdom · 1343–1400
  85. Jonathan Swift Ireland · 1667–1745
  86. Jack London United States · 1876–1916
  87. Nikolai Gogol Ukraine · 1809–1852
  88. F. Scott Fitzgerald United States · 1896–1940
  89. Charles Baudelaire France · 1821–1867
  90. Emily Brontë United Kingdom · 1818–1848
  91. John Milton United Kingdom · 1608–1674
  92. Toni Morrison United States · 1931–2019
  93. Mary Shelley United Kingdom · 1797–1851
  94. Herman Melville United States · 1819–1891
  95. Kurt Vonnegut United States · 1922–2007
  96. Salman Rushdie India · 1947–
  97. C. S. Lewis United Kingdom · 1898–1963
  98. Henry David Thoreau United States · 1817–1862
  99. Ayn Rand United States · 1905–1982
  100. Yukio Mishima Japan · 1925–1970

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